OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man serving a prison sentence in the death of a 5-year-old Omaha girl has been charged with his involvement in the death of another homicide victim.

22-year-old Vincent Hicks was charged with first-degree murder Wednesday in the death of 29-year-old Tristan Harper.

Harper was slain at an Omaha residence in December 2013.

Three weeks later, 5-year-old Payton Benson was also killed in error as Hicks intended to shoot someone else. Authorities say her killing was gang related.

Police did not describe a motive in Harper’s homicide.

Hicks began serving his 65-year prison sentence in Payton’s slaying in April after pleading no contest to second-degree murder.

Police say Hicks will be brought to the Douglas County Jail from the Nebraska State Penitentiary.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Nebraska mental health therapist indicted on several counts of Medicaid fraud has been ordered to serve 12 weekends in jail over the next year.

U.S. Attorney Deb Gilg said in a news release Wednesday that Melissa Prentice-Erickson must repay more than $192,000 after pleading guilty to health care fraud. She must also serve six months under house arrest and a five-year probation term.

An indictment says Prentice-Erickson was a mental health therapist with a practice in Aurora. She was accused of submitting more than 2,600 Medicaid claims over five years for services not provided.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Father Hupp Wildlife Management Area in Thayer County has been reopened now that six endangered whooping cranes have left it.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission closed the area to the public after the birds were spotted Nov. 13. They left on Tuesday.

Commission spokesman Jerry Kane said the closure is standard procedure for the commission when whooping cranes are confirmed on property the agency owns or manages.

The birds’ total wild population of about 300 individuals migrates through Nebraska each fall and spring between wintering sites along the Texas Gulf of Mexico coast and breeding areas in northern Alberta. They are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act and the Nebraska Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act.

 

PLATTE CENTER, Neb. (AP) — Officials say several statues at an eastern Nebraska cemetery have been vandalized.

Black spray paint was used to mark statues of saints, angels and Christ at the St. Patrick-St. Joseph Cemetery near Platte Center. Cemetery officials say a couple visiting the grave of their son discovered the damage Sunday.

According to officials, a black heart was painted on St. Joseph and a white supremacist symbol marks the chest of St. Patrick. They say black eyes were painted onto a statue of Christ, while upside down crosses were painted on the chests of angels.

The walls flanking the cemetery’s gates were marked with phrases, including one in reference to Satan.

Cemetery board member Bob Schmidt says cleaning up the damage will be problematic because warmer weather is needed to remove the paint.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Police Chief Jim Peschong (peh-SHAHNG’) says his officers fired eight shots and a man they were trying to arrest fired three shots during a fatal melee outside a northeast Lincoln home.

Peschong expressed amazement Wednesday that the two injured officers weren’t killed.

Police say Officer Matthew Gilleland was shot in an arm and Officer Angela Morehouse was punched in the Sunday evening incident. Twenty-nine-year-old Zachary Grigsby was fatally shot.

Police have said Grigsby declared he wouldn’t go to jail after the officers learned he had a felony arrest warrant. He struggled with the officers and then produced a handgun.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln Police have identified two of the three officers involved in a fatal weekend confrontation with a 29-year-old man.

Police said Tuesday that Officer Matthew Gilleland and Officer Angela Morehouse were both injured in the Sunday evening incident. Zachary Grigsby was fatally shot.

Gilleland was shot in the arm and was hospitalized afterward, but he is expected to go home Tuesday. Morehouse was punched during the altercation.

Police have said three officers were involved, but they refused to identify the third officer on Tuesday. Grigsby and both the officers identified are white.

Authorities have said Grigsby fired at the officers and declared he wouldn’t go to jail after they learned he had a felony arrest warrant.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man once sentenced to death in the 1975 shooting of two teenagers has been resentenced to a term that will see him released from jail next year.

Shakur Abdullah, formerly known as Rodney Stewart, was resentenced Monday, 41 years after the shooting. He will be released in January.

According to prosecutors, Abdullah shot Thomas Ehlers and Daniel Evans before setting the van they were in on fire. Ehlers was killed and Evans was left blind in one eye.

The district judge’s decision is part of the required resentencing of juveniles who had previously received automatic life sentences. Nebraska lawmakers changed the sentencing range for juveniles convicted of murder to 40 years to life in prison. Abdullah was 16 at the time of the shootings.

The Nebraska Supreme Court overturned Abdullah’s original death sentence in 1977.